The GuitarCenter uses a foundation of HR information to schedule the entire employee team in each store in a way that optimizes revenue. Step 2 is simultaneous scheduling of training. That’s an HR system with clear impact on the bottom line.
Before Chris Salles began his project, the Guitar Center scheduling system boiled down to spreadsheets in each individual store. The musical instrument company had a structure that resembled the venues their customers inhabited. While people dreamed about the possibilities of schedule optimization, the real world required huge chunks of the local managers time just to get scheduling done.
Reducing that hassle was the primary objective of the company’s decision to use the Dayforce scheduling and workforce management modules. (Dayforce is the new single code stack HR platform Ceridian is developing). With the new software, scheduling would be consistent across the company’s stores and internet properties.
In the end, integrated schedule management and workforce planning provided a foundation for much larger things. Salles and his team were able to use the Day force toolset blended with department by department foot traffic measures and financial performance data.
(You can see the project written up here, here and here.)
So, exactly what does that mean?
Guitar Center Stores can now make scheduling the fulcrum of store revenue increases. Each store manager can now tell when and where to stick the best performers. When there is traffic, having the right people at work in the right departments is how you turn the opportunity into revenue.
This creates a virtuous circle in two ways. When great performers are given great opportunities, they perform even more effectively. When opportunities can be quantified, employees can see quickly that what was once an undesirable shift may actually be access to a larger commission.
Chris is fundamentally a systems thinker. The result of this success was a promotion to become the head of eLeraning for the company.
Why?
As Chris told me, knowing when to put the right resources in place also allows you to discover slack time that can be used for training. He makes the obvious (in hindsight) case that an eLearning System without a schedule backbone is a system that won’t be used.
The GuitarCenter uses a foundation of HR information to schedule the entire employee team in each store in a way that optimizes revenue. Step 2 is simultaneous scheduling of training. Chris calls that ‘training demand management’.
That’s an HR system with clear impact on the bottom line. That’s an HR system with a clear path to continually improve its impact on the bottom line. That looks a lot like the holy grail.
If you get a chance to hear Chris talk about the project, don’t miss it.
(Read the intro to this piece: Holy Grail I)
